THE LAST CHANCE MERCANTILE THE MONTEREY PENINSULA LANDFILL'S REUSE STORE

摘要

As one can see in the financial section of this paper, the Last Chance Mercantile does not operate at a profit. If you subtract the $10,000 labor cost for processing CRT's and $25,000 in tipping fees charged for the LCM tonnage, we lost about $50,000 last year. Fortunately, our revenue keeps increasing every year. Unfortunately, so do labor costs. We have reduced staff by one person this year and may have to make further reductions in the future. But this program is not really about making a net profit. We are saving thousands and thousands of dollars in resources by not burying over 900 tons of reusable stuff. The net cost of recycling these 900 tons is less than it costs to recycle some of the other materials that we divert from our waste stream. We are also providing an important service to our community by making low cost clothing, building materials, etc. available to people with low incomes. Of course, we serve the bargain hunting wealthy folk as well. We also provide good jobs with benefits for 11 people. Most resale stores use unpaid volunteers and discard stuff that doesn't sell. We only bury items that have totally deteriorated due to the weather outside. The LCM is the most popular thing this District has ever done, and we've done some pretty interesting and innovative things, such as producing landfill gas powered electricity and establishing one of the first permanent household hazardous waste facilities. The HHW operation costs us about $500,000 per year with no income to offset expenses. The goodwill that the store generates for the Waste Management District is immeasurable. People no longer think of our operation as a "dirty old dump". It is the home of the Last Chance Mercantile, the BEST PLACE TO FIND GOLD ON THE MONTEREY PENINSULA!!